Music is Breath

Asking my husband to pose for a picture, never a boring moment!

Now on a more serious note, I wrote briefly about a very amazing woman who passed away in the Jewish community, she was only 37 and it has really struck a chord, everybody is doing beautiful things in her honor personally and for the community.  She used to have a Jewish learning class for women called Torah and Tea, now there are Torah and Tea classes all over the word created in her honor.  The people who knew her well are writing about how giving, caring, and wise she was.  Her husband posted the most amazing letter after her passing, there are eight children that were left behind:

A weak week

Amazing how your life can change in one instant.

Everything is different. Life will never be the same. Yet in the midst of the sorrow and pain you discover the greatest light.

Questions, thoughts, pondering, struggle, faith, commitment, resolve, all wrapped up into one dish that you eat every hour of the day.

Here is one of the many things that I learned this week.

People from all over the world were reaching out to offer their sympathy and support. Thousands of absolute strangers taking on to do good deeds (Mitzvahs) in Rashi’s memory.

I sat there and wondered to myself “Who are all these complete strangers that are reaching out to me, making these commitments to be better people, all in honor of someone they have never met”?

And then I discovered one of the most beautiful lights in the dark:

Amongst Jews there is no such thing as a complete stranger

Shabbat Shalom

Another post really got deep into my soul today:

Sloppy Joes

Let me tell you about Sloppy Joes. Yes the meat dish that you eat with tacos and that kids love.

It happens to be one of my kids favorite foods, and Rashi made it every other week for them, and it was finger licking good. But she never made it on a Tuesday because that night was Torah and Tea and she didn’t want the kitchen messy just before the women came for the class.

Besides for March 11, on that day she decided to make them their favorite dish even though it was a Tuesday. I was a bit surprised but as a married man I knew not to ask questions.

Fast forward two weeks and we arrive back this Monday from New York without Rashi. The kids are getting ready to go to school and I ask them what they would like for dinner when they get home. Unanimous decision: “Sloppy Joes”.

One small problem..none of us know how to make it.

My house helper arrives. We mention we need to figure out how to make Sloppy Joes for the kids. She starts taking out all the ingredients and prepping the food. I ask her how she knows how to make Sloppy Joe’s (she has worked for us for several years and NEVER knew how to make it). She says: “Rashi taught me” which caught me by surprise so I asked her “when did she teach you” and she says “the day she passed away she wanted to make it for the kids but when she got the headache she showed me how to make it and then went to lay down”

Yes of course my faith is rock solid. Thank you Sloppy Joe.

Shabbat Shalom

WOW! 

This whole day has been awe inspiring, mind opening, and feeling things deep.  I took a Yoga class with my amazing 81 year old teacher this morning, at the end of every class we just lay down on our back on the mat for a few minutes.  The goal is to not think of anything, just feel everything, not to let the mind wander, he plays some soft music, and I started paying attention to the flute, the note was very long, and it made me realize that music is breath. Yoga is breath, life is breath, my mother is a musician, she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, she has an amazing singing range, of course for musicians and especially singers this is obvious.  I have always been a movement person, so this realization is very exciting to me, how music and Yoga makes us feel alive, and going even deeper, makes us feel, we connect to the breath, guide the breath, blows me away.  Earlier in this blog I wrote about when something really affects us it "strikes a chord," what an amazing musical expression and again having to do with sound, breathing, hearing and feeling.

As my Yoga teacher says at the end of every class,

Think of Nothing, Feel Everything,

I encourage you to feel everything,

The downs make us realize and appreciate the ups,

To feel is to live,

Now it's time to rest,

Shabbat Shalom,

Coach Yulia